2006-05-25 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- Vice President Dick Cheney was personally angered by a former U.S. ambassador's newspaper column attacking a key rationale for the war in Iraq, and he repeatedly instructed his former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to "get all the facts out" related to the critique, according to excerpts from Libby's 2004 grand jury testimony released late Wednesday by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

Libby also told the grand jury that Cheney raised as an issue that the former ambassador's wife worked at the CIA and that she allegedly played a role in sending him to investigate the Iraqi government's interest in acquiring nuclear weapons materials. That issue formed the basis of former ambassador Joseph Wilson's published critique.

In his evening court filing, which included the formerly secret testimony, Fitzgerald did not assert that Cheney instructed Libby to tell reporters the name and role of Valerie Wilson, Joseph Wilson's wife. But he said Cheney's interactions with Libby on that topic were a key part of the reason that Libby allegedly made false statements to the FBI about his conversations with reporters around the time her name was disclosed in news accounts.

"The state of mind of the vice president as communicated to defendant (Libby) is directly relevant to the issue of whether defendant knowingly made false statements to federal agents and the grand jury regarding when and how he learned about Ms. Wilson's employment and what he said to reporters regarding this issue," Fitzgerald said.

The prosecutor also left open the possibility that Cheney will be called as a witness during Libby's trial, scheduled to begin next year, and denied an assertion last week by Libby's lawyers that Cheney would not be called.

Fitzgerald was appointed in late 2003 to investigate the disclosure of Valerie Wilson's name to the media. His probe has led to a series of disclosures about efforts by the White House to rebut Joseph Wilson's published critique, but no official has been directly charged with leaking Valerie Wilson's name.

Instead, Libby was accused of making false statements, obstruction of justice and perjury, mostly based on his statements that he did not confirm Valerie Wilson's employment at the CIA and alleged involvement in Joseph Wilson's trip when he was talking with two journalists. Libby has denied wrongdoing.

Fitzgerald has sought to build a case that Libby was preoccupied with the task of rebutting Joseph Wilson's July 2003 column, which accused the White House of twisting intelligence to support its invasion of Iraq -- and that this preoccupation stemmed from Cheney's own intense focus on Wilson's assertions. Wednesday's court filing included Libby's March 5, 2004, testimony when he recalled that he and Cheney discussed Wilson's article on multiple occasions each day after it appeared.

Cheney saw it as attacking his own credibility, Libby said.

"He wanted to get all the facts out about what he had or hadn't done, what the facts were or were not. He was very keen about that and said it repeatedly. Let's get everything out," Libby testified.